Generally, an electrical connector includes some form of dielectric or insulative housing which mounts one or more conductive terminals. The housing is configured for mating with a complementary mating connector or other connecting device which, itself, has one or more conductive terminals. A connector assembly typically includes a pair of mating connectors, such as plug and receptacle connectors sometimes called male and female connectors.
Various types of electrical connectors are designed for mounting on a printed circuit board. The terminals have terminating ends for connection to appropriate circuit traces on the board, such as solder tails for solder connection to the circuit traces on the board and/or in holes in the board.
One type of board mounted connector is a power (i.e., versus a signal) connector which mounts one or more power terminals. The power connector couples power circuitry to or from power circuits on the printed circuit board. With the ever-increasing density of electrical components used in electronic packaging, electrical power connectors often are needed to carry high current between a circuit board and a complementary mating connector or other connecting device, or between one circuit board and another circuit board. Power connectors typically are rather robust structures, and a male power connector may include one or more rather sizable terminal blades.
As microprocessor voltages decrease, current requirements have increased, leading to the need for power connectors with low contact resistance to minimize voltage drop. While the current demand increases, design demands are presented for power connectors of ever-decreasing sizes. This creates a myriad of problems.
There is a need for a board mounted power connector which meets both the contact resistance requirements as well as the size constraints. The present invention is directed to solving these problems and satisfying such needs.